The Seahawk

Issue date: 10/21/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Amber Hughes | THE SEAHAWK

When commissioners offered Titan Cement $4.2 million to bring a plant to New Hanover County, a relatively small number of citizens said no.

Then, when Titan decided to build the fourth largest cement plant in the nation only a handful of miles from 8,700 schoolchildren who are most susceptible to cancer, autism and respiratory disease, more citizens said no.

Now they're screaming.

In UNCW's Dobo Hall Oct. 13, Friends of the Lower Cape Fear River and UNCW ECO sponsored a Citizen Action meeting for Stop Titan, a well-established grassroots effort to spread awareness and ultimately, as their name declares, stop the Titan cement plant from coming to fruition.

The auditorium had stations for "Materials & Handouts," "Volunteering," "Letter Writing" and "Donations."

The first goal of the meeting was to provide concerned and uninformed people with information about Titan America.

"This plant will be the nail in the coffin for industry to roll right up the Cape Fear River," said Tracy Skrabal of the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The second goal that night was to prepare citizens for the upcoming public hearing Oct. 20 at the BB&T Auditorium in Castle Hayne, N.C. The main issue at the hearing will be fighting a draft permit that has already been issued to Titan.

"This is about getting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Division of Air Quality to step up to the plate, and we can't give them any choice," said Cape Fear Riverkeeper Doug Springer.

At the public hearing, those lobbying against Titan will be voicing their concerns about the pending permit that would take the company one step closer to their goal of setting up camp in New Hanover. The speakers gave many sturdy facts and passionate opinions about the plant, revealing that Titan is lying about their intentions.

"They're not being honest. They want to export the resources of North Carolina overseas," Springer said.

He continued to blame Titan of wishing to set up a monopoly in North Carolina and said that the company plans to expand their plant by five times more than what they have predicted, and then restrict cement imports once they get here.

Members of Stop Titan know that the fight is going to be long and that this upcoming permit battle is only one of many to come. Titan needs every permit before they can begin putting their smokestacks to work.

"It's a long fight. This is just one battle, but it's worthwhile," said Joel Bourne, president of Friends of the Lower Cape Fear and founder of http://www.stoptitan.org.

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